WhatsApp: Change storage location for pictures and videos
You can change the storage location for your WhatsApp pictures and videos afterwards. We'll show you how.
Change location of images and videos from WhatsApp
Without root, the direct change of the target path for the saved WhatsApp media files is unfortunately not possible. However, you can move the files via a file manager on your smartphone. How to change the destination path of your pictures and videos from the default WhatsApp folders:
- Open the pre-installed file manager on your device. Alternatively, of course, this also works with other file explorers such as ES File Explorer.
- Open "Device Storage" or the local device storage location.
- Scroll to the WhatsApp folder.
- Select the media folder. Here you will also find a folder with sent media data in the individual folders of pictures, videos and voice messages.
- You can delete the "Sent" folder, for example, if you have already saved the sent content, such as pictures, in your gallery.
- Mark folders whose contents you want to move and open the context bar with a long press or via a side menu.
- Here, the entire folder contents can be moved or copied to the SD card, for example, in order to be inserted into another folder later.
- If you cannot move your data directly, you can only copy it, do not forget to delete the corresponding folder in the WhatsApp directory later.
Do not show WhatsApp images in the gallery anymore
If you just want to prevent downloaded images from appearing in the photo gallery of your smartphone, you can do this with a new function in WhatsApp. However, you still have to switch to the WhatsApp test program and update the app.
- The new function is called "Media Visibility" and can be switched on or off for each chat - regardless of whether it is a single person or a group.
- You can find the feature by first tapping the image of the desired contact in the chat overview of WhatsApp and then selecting the "i" symbol in the pop-up at the bottom right.
- Via the menu item "Visibility of media" you determine whether newly downloaded media for the selected chat should be displayed in the phone's gallery or not. This is the case by default, but can be changed quickly using the appropriate selection.
- You can also globally disable the display of WhatsApp images in the gallery for all chats. To do this, open the WhatsApp settings and tap on "Chats". Remove the checkmark next to "Show media in gallery".
- In both cases, the function only prevents new images from appearing in the gallery. Existing images are retained.
- Keep in mind that this way you won't prevent WhatsApp from saving the pictures on your smartphone - they just won't show up in the gallery.
What you can do when your storage space is full and no more media files can be saved can be read in another practical tip.